The Budget Office of the Federation has explained how the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), which the Presidency recently disowned and is now under investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), received a budgetary allocation in 2026.
The Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, said the body had its institutional origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) established under the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Yakubu made the clarification in a statement issued after appearing before members of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
He said the PEAC was inaugurated by Buhari on October 9, 2019, adding that by the time preparations for the 2026 budget began, relevant government institutions had already issued official instruments relating to the body.
Yakubu said the Budget Office merely acted on documentation supplied by other authorised government institutions.
He said, “PEAC/PFIPC did not enter the 2026 Budget merely because it asked for funds. The Council had its origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari on October 9, 2019. By the time preparation of the 2026 Budget began, official instruments had already been issued by the institutions charged with those functions.
“The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had assigned an administrative code to the PFIPC. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver. The applicable public-service salary structure also existed. These instruments did not come from the Budget Office. They came to it.
“The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign its code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effect.”
…Personnel Request Cut From ₦3.85 Billion To ₦802.9 Million
The Budget Office chief disclosed that the council initially submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion for the 2026 fiscal year.
He said the office rejected that figure and independently recalculated the personnel requirement based on the authorized staffing structure, recruitment waiver, and approved public-service salary framework.
According to him, the exercise reduced the proposed personnel cost to ₦802.98 million.
“Council later submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3,850,935,000.00. That estimate did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office disregarded it and made an independent calculation using only the authorized establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure, and the extant costing methodology.
“That calculation produced ₦802,978,783.00. This was not a concession to the Council. It was the Budget Office’s own fiscal judgment. It was the amount placed in the executive budget proposal and later appropriated,” Yakubu said.
Yakubu said the body could not access the personnel allocation because its promoter, Adeyemi Adeniyi, failed to obtain the required financial clearance.
He explained that such clearance was necessary before recruitment, payroll enrollment, or salary payments could commence.
“Financial clearance is the point at which a personnel provision may begin to acquire legal force as an expenditure. It is not a routine letter. It is the confirmation that the fiscal and regulatory conditions for recruitment have been met. Until it is issued, the figure remains in the budget. It does not create staff. It does not open payroll. It does not produce salary. The Budget Office did not issue financial clearance for PEAC/PFIPC because the conditions were incomplete,” he said.
Yakubu explained that the 2026 Appropriation Bill did not become law until presidential assent on March 31, 2026, meaning final financial clearance could not have been issued before then.
He added that after assent, another condition remained outstanding because the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing and remuneration structure complied with the approved public-service framework.
“The Budget Office could calculate the cost. It could not open the gate. There was therefore no financial clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrollment. There was no salary payment,” he added.
The Budget Office DG said the ₦802.98 million personnel provision represented 61.63 per cent of the council’s total appropriation of ₦1.303 billion.
He dismissed suggestions that the entire personnel allocation could have been handed directly to the body as a lump sum.
“The personnel provision was ₦802,978,783.00. It represented 61.63 per cent of the total appropriation of ₦1,302,978,783.00. It has sometimes been described as though the Council could have received the whole amount and spent it at will. That description is false,” he said.
Yakubu explained that personnel appropriations are normally paid monthly to verified employees through the federal government payroll system rather than transferred wholesale to an agency.
He added, “The institution does not receive the annual personnel provision as cash under its control. Even in a lawful process, the Council would not have received ₦802,978,783.00 in one payment. The money would have gone over twelve months to individual employees.
“That process never began. No financial clearance was issued. No recruitment took place. No payroll record was created. No salary became due. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn. Not one kobo was drawn. There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure.”
